


Pillow Talk Of The Unromantic Kind

by Bertul



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Injuries, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:25:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5800690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bertul/pseuds/Bertul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico gets back from a quest late at night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pillow Talk Of The Unromantic Kind

It’s 2am when Percy jerks awake, and it doesn’t take long to work out what’s out of place.  
  
“Looking at people while they sleep is really creepy, Nico.”  
  
The mass of shadows warps and twists in the corner and one son of Hades steps out, looking tired and grumpy, or at least more than Nico usually does. He’s soaked to the bone too, shirt plastered tight to his skeletal frame and dripping water all over the floor, including Percy’s clothes.  
  
“How’d you know?” He grumbles, rubbing at his eyes like it will help him stay awake for longer.  
  
“Lucky guess. You know, you have a perfectly good cabin at camp. And your own room down the hall.”  
  
He knows the second it leaves his mouth that he’s pressing, doesn’t need to see the way Nico stiffens to be reminded that was the wrong thing to say.  
  
“Are you saying you don’t want me here?” is all Nico finally comes out with, voice guarded.  
  
Percy just shifts closer to the other side of the bed and pulls back the covers, telling the water currently drenching Nico to evaporate.  
  
Nico kicks off his shoes and sword and clambers awkwardly in next to him, but doesn’t shuffle up close like he normally does, a gap between them that feels like a chasm.  
  
“Quest good?” Percy asks eventually, trying to mend the fractured silence.  
  
“Awful. We got separated somewhere in Nebraska, Valdez nearly set a house on fire after Jason kissed him, I got clawed by a harpy and we didn’t even get so much as a thank you from Demeter.”  
  
Nico grinds his face into the pillow and lets out a muffled shriek of frustration that - judging by the Iris Messages Percy received over the last few weeks - he’s been holding in ever since he learned he would be trapped in the close company of one Leo Valdez for the foreseeable future, whilst Percy lightly traces his hand down Nico’s frigid arm, feeling the roughness of gauze against his fingertips.  
  
“Ambrosia.”  
  
It’s half-offer, half-order, and given the current state of things Percy expects Nico to just snap _I’m fine_ and then either roll over to sulk or just plain slip away into the shadows. He didn’t expect a whisper-quiet murmur of “Yeah, that’d be good”, so his mouth kicks into action before his mind catches up.  
  
“Wait, really?”  
  
Nico lifts his face out of the pillow and gives him a flat look. “What?”  
  
“Uh, I was kind of expecting you to refuse and sulk a bit or something.”  
  
The look turns irritated, and Percy doesn’t miss the wince when Nico goes to roll over.  
  
“I don’t _have_ to be here, you know,” Nico says eventually, voice tart.  
  
“Yeah, I know. But that’s why I like it. You _are_ here, so you wanted to be here and sleep with me-”  
  
Nico flinches at that, which still makes Percy’s heart sink a little. Three months in and even now the mention of anything remotely physical between them – hell, it took almost a month for Nico to begin calling him his boyfriend, and even then he got all flustered – makes him clam up.  
  
“- actual sleeping, I mean, not the whole… you know, I’m just going to stop talking now.”  
  
“Yeah, that sounds good,” is all Nico says, but after a pause he turns and wriggles closer nonetheless, snuggling up so there’s barely a breath of space between them and they’re lying there in comfortable silence  
  
It’s nice, Percy thinks drowsily, all cozy under the covers with Nico pressed right up against him like he wants them to fuse together or something.  
  
(Isn’t there some myth about that? Never mind, he’s sure Aphrodite was involved so it probably didn’t end well.)  
  
The moment is ruined when Nico deliberately presses his ice-cold hands to Percy’s bare skin and Percy gives a very unheroic shriek.


End file.
